7th R&D Framework Programme/Horizon 2020

We need this permanent activity to support all the European as well as some of the interested non-European members to get involved in the projects called for and funded by the European Commission as part of the 7 year Horizon 2020 programme - starting 1 January 2014. The Horizon 2020 Programme consists of a number of different research & funding programs such as "Transport", "Safety & Security", "Information & Communication Society", "Materials" and others - many of which are relevant to rail transport - with a total budget of 7.7 Billion Euros available for funding. Approximately 400 Million Euros of this budget have been added to private money to set up a Joint Undertaking/PPP initiative specifically for rail research called "Shift2Rail" which now has a total budget of nearly 1 Billion Euros.
The P000062 project budget is used to support the coordination of the members towards setting the research priorities - based on the "Challenge 2050" and "Rail Technical Strategy Europe" UIC documents, to support the members in the participation in the annual Calls and the preparation of the proposals for the projects. Also to support the UIC Research & Innovation Coordination Group (RCIG) and its tasks, one of them is the coordination of the input towards ERRAC - the European Rail Research Advisory Council to the European Commission, bringing forward the UIC members research priorities and funding needs and influencing the programming of the Calls and their content of the European Commissions H2020 and Shift2Rail. Many members wish to see the same sort support as the UNIFE offers to their members in preparation of new EU funded projects.
The added value is that the UIC members can influence the programming of the content of the EC s call and funding and can participate in the EC funded project much easier and are being well informed and support during this whole process and H2020 programme. Participating in EU funded rail research projects means a huge value for money increase compared to carrying out needed research by each UIC member individually, especially now that in H2020 much of the Rail research projects are being funded at a 100% rate!

Acoustic control for new composite blocks

This project will protect the sectors reputation and credibility for noise management by resolving a weak point in the noise TSI and Implementing regulation 2015/429. The current noise TSI states that once an existing freight wagon has been retrofitted with composite brake blocks then the wagon is assumed to be compliant (ie silent), no actual noise measurements are required. This approach was accepted by ERA, on the recommendation of the rail sector, because it removes the cost of noise tests (an important barrier) and therefore promotes the rapid development of a silent wagon fleet. Currently there is no control of the noise performance for new composite brake blocks (in UIC leaflet 541-4 or any other relevant document). Whilst all currently homologated composite blocks are low noise, there is a risk that some of the new composite blocks in development will give rise to high noise levels. The existing regulatory framework is not able to prevent the use of any such new noisy composite block. Should a wagon be retrofitted with a new noisy composite block, this wagon would be assumed compliant with the TSI and benefit from track access noise bonuses as defined in Implementing regulation 2015/429 Article 2 concerning NDTAC. If this were to happen it would seriously damage the sectors credibility and undermine the strategy for reducing freight noise in Europe. By validating a method for testing the noise performance of new composite blocks this project will remove the risk of new noisy brake blocks.

Administ of HERMES Messages + relating 900 Leaflets

This activity must go hand in hand with modifications to interoperability standards to prepare for the transition between the current situation (UIC leaflets) and the future (TSI on Freight Telematics, new CIM consignment note for example). Other changes to the rules for wagon management, their numbering or any other alteration of the rules within the trade at international level have a direct impact on the workload involved in this activity.

Administration of Passenger Commercial Issues

This proyect is needed to create and maintain framework conditions of mutual trust for the international tariff cooperation of railway undertakings.
This group also monitors the development of common international tariffs in international passenger traffic (formerly known as TCV, now: Special Conditions for International Carriage [SCIC] for non-integrated reservation tickets [NRT], rail pass integrated reservation tickets [IRT], rail pass tickets [RPT] and East-West traffic [EWT]).
All these projects are essential to enable members to cooperate so they can offer commercial services to travelers in an international context.

Administration of Passenger Technical Issues

This project is the framework to develop and safeguard TAP-related know-how and solutions within the railway sector:
• Technical implementation of commercial requirements (decisions taken by Commercial Group)
• Maintenance and development of IT applications needed for the interoperability of ticketing and reservation systems
• Representation of the Passenger Forum in TAP TSI-related working bodies
• Cooperation with the Commercial Group and the MERITS/PRIFIS group and validation of leaflets produced by other Forums.
All these implementations are essential to guarantee the harmonization of international standards that allow international travels.

Asset Management Common Method and Template in a GIS implementation

The objective of this project is to develop a common method and template for describing how critical infrastructure assets perform over their life in service under a range of maintenance and renewal strategies and with varying constraints on track access and costs. The application of this method generates information that has the potential to radically improve core business processes, including the timing of renewal, the selection of assets, the strategic forecasting at route and network level.
Implementing these methods in a GIS solution and to give access to members to a computing atlas with a scenario-player tool is the way to illustrate Asset Management methods to assets in a network vision. This GIS is unique because nobody is able to present an overall and comparative vision allowing strategic reasoning in terms of asset management and capacity planning, etc.
Several ongoing projects (NetIRail, ...), funded by the EC and with UIC participation, provide bits and pieces of functionality in the form of web applications. However these projects will not necessarily be followed up. There is an opportunity to capitalize on these developments, and to deploy a better integrated application on a server dedicated to UIC Members.

As one of the results of a large stopping distance measurement campaign, SBB found that UCT trains (carrying containers, semi-trailers, swap bodies) have on average a 15% lower braking performance (braked weight percentage lambda) than the expected one according to the operational braking calculation of the trains, resp. 10% lower than the operational value written on the driver s braking sheet. Other freight trains didn t have this problem.
In Austria and Switzerland, since 2014, according to the operational regulations, a 10% reduction of the braking weight percentages of these trains has to be applied.
Possibly, other countries (NSA s) will follow. But this measure doesn t fit into the UIC braking performance system and has to be withdrawn as soon as the problem has been properly solved on a technical base.
It is not acceptable, especially for ETCS, that there exists a class of international freight trains that systematically do not fulfil the UIC braking performance requirements.
Therefore, the goals of the project are:
• Determine the exact causes of the phenomenon in question
• Avoid/withdraw operating restrictions for combined transport
• Potentially (depending on cause):
- revise design rules for self-adjusting load-proportional braking systems
-amend vehicle approval / type test (brake assessment) rules with a view to improving coherence between nominal and actual braking performances
-adapt maintenance rules

Capacity4Rail

To face the future challenge of increasing traffic and make the railway system more attractive and competitive, a step change will be needed to guarantee an adaptable system, offering a high operational capacity with high reliability and resilience to hazards.
This step change will only be achieved through a global and combined optimization of the infrastructure, of the operation and of the vehicle performances.
CAPACITY4RAIL aims at paving the way for the future railway system, delivering coherent, demonstrated, innovative and sustainable solutions for track design, freight systems, operation and advanced monitoring
With a comprehensive system vision, it will contribute to the development of guidance documents identifying further actions to be undertaken and the future technologies and systems to be developed.
It will give the demonstration that step change in railway infrastructure and operations may be achieved within the constraints of the need to maintain railway services while the work is being performed.
By nature, and as requested by the European Commission, CAPACITY4RAIL is directly supporting the E.C. White Paper. It will highly contribute to the development and definition of European Standards, future regulations, and European Research policy and will allow a high degree of interoperability.
CAPACIT4RAIL is also an invaluable introduction and pathfinder to the Shift²Rail Initiative.
With a limited financial input, UIC members will benefit from the high value of the scientific outputs and the technical development of this 15 M€ project, likely to generate further cost cuts in investments, maintenance, operations as well as an increase of the attractiveness and market share of the train freight business.

Commuter and Regional Train Services

The purpose of CRTS is to obtain a continuous best-practice overview of operating passenger railways in regional and metropolitan areas, how to manage huge passenger flows and to satisfy customer expectations and how to manage cross border services. Moreover, consideration shall be given to financing and investment practices as well as on different forms of relationships between service providers / transport undertakings on the one side and public authorities / client bodies on the other. Given the fact that 80% of railway passengers in the world are commuters, and most countries offer these systems as a public service, CRTS can be seen as a worldwide project that can help operators and infrastructure managers to provide a better service.
This Group meets regularly (2/3 times per year) and mostly the members have made presentations of their own organisation. It is a way to allow to put in contact European and Asian commuter and regional systems, so companies involved can profit from the experience of the others.
The members consider that the group should be enlarged and new subjects have to be deepened in order to provide a better service.

DEcision-making and Slab-track MANagement

With the exception of designs that are already outmoded and tried-and-tested (Rheda type, tracks on Japanese networks), innovation with regard to slab track design still frequently comes from industrial manufacturers.
This means that on a rapidly expanding global market, there is a proliferation of innovative slab track designs while at the same time infrastructure managers do not have any clear idea of their benefits, their drawbacks and the considerations that governed their choice of design.
Even more fundamental than the choice of one type of slab track or another, it is the choice between ballasted track and slab track that is often difficult for investors to resolve..
Indeed, very often there is no formal process to help infrastructure managers make the choice between ballasted track and non-ballasted track, even though they alone have the capacity to gather long-term feedback on these different options.

Design, definition and localisation of a "Trackcircuit" for detection of broken rails without detect

Today on the lines equipped with axle counters or manual block sections, ETCS Level 2 and in the future, on the lines equipped on Level 3, ETCS (L3), on the sections without, physical track circuits, broken rail detection need to be reconsidered.
To compensate for the absence of broken rail detection by the classical signalling systems, which is necessary to preserve the same safety level, to increase significantly the track maintenance needs (a higher grinding frequency, more rail replacements and shorter rail replacement period, less track possession times for maintenance...).
The project aims to define and demonstrate a new concept of low cost solution, able to be added to the existing lines how solve the permanent broken rail detection.

ECCO Phase 2

6 of the 9 Rail Freight Corridors (RFC) were implemented at the end of 2013 and 3 additional ones will be implemented at the end of 2015 as per EU Regulation 913/2010. With this Regulation, the EU aims to give rail freight a last chance for it to become a competitive and sustainalbe transport mode. However, in devising the rules for setting up the corridors, the need for harmonisation and coordination, yet essential for improved productivity, were somewhat overlooked.
Although the ECCO project has broken some grounds and flagged up the need for a harmonised and cross corridor perspective in order for rail freight to be competitive, the process is still in its early days. At the moment a cross corridor dialogue between RFCs and RUs has begun at the initiative of ECCO. It is however not mature enough to stand on its own and needs further support. ECCO phase 2 is proposing the required support and coordination.

EES Platform Activitie

The environmental and sustainability leadership of the rail sector represent major arguments for greater investment and rail friendly policy. It is also important to demonstrate continuing progress and self regulation in order to reduce the risk of in appropriate regulation. These arguments are given credibility through the UIC-CER Sustainable Mobility Strategy 2030 and beyond . This project supports development of, and reporting against the strategy. It also fosters cost effective technical development of the sector through expert networks. The technical development and communication is co-ordinate with and designed to support CER & EIM where possible.

Emergency Brake Valves Performance on ERTMS Lines

The European Train Control System (ETCS) uses a predefined calculation model to decide when the brakes have to be applied
automatically in order to stop the train before reaching the stop signal.
The emergency brake valves (EBV) used by ETCS to apply the brakes don t have sufficient requirements at the moment to
guarantee that the time needed to apply the brakes is compliant with the calculation model used by ETCS.
The stopping distances might be longer than expected by the ETCS calculation model.
The aim of this project is to avoid problems during the certification of the ETCS system, expensive testing,
over-engineering (e.g. installation of too many emergency brake valves) and operational restrictions.

Energy & Electric Traction Experts Group

Energy & Electrical Traction Group (E&ET) aims to provide railway infrastructure managers with guidelines for the administration, organisation and supervision of fixed installations. To better provide feedbacks on system design, architectures and maintenance, new technological applications, areas of improvement in normal operation and causes of accidents will be associated with the different sub-systems. The evaluation of the electrification system is based on uniform criteria and common objectives.Main failures classification, statistics and relative database are under identification and analysis, as well as the data that should be examined to manage the electrification system events. Further work in the domain of E&ETE is the definition of common rules to assess the availability/reliability of supply installations and avoid black out of the networks. A new task is related to the optimisation of the Energy network in conjunction with the traffic operation management in order to provide tools to implement the energy saving requirements targeting 2020 and 2050. The Group is in charge of preparing International Railway Standards and UIC leaflets on process, systems, techniques and components on fixed installations and will also continue acting as advisory panel and mirror group with research projects and cooperating with other standardisation organisation as well as reviewing UIC leaflets and/or of the other standards, in order to coordinate the matter and avoid double work.

Energy Efficiency Best Practice Workshops

Energy efficiency has a huge potential for cost savings (for most railways a 1% improvement will normally save several million Euros per year) and also represents the most direct way to reduce CO‎2 ‎emissions and to secure strong environmental ‎performance in support of the UIC-CER Sustainability Strategy‎.‎ ‎In recent years a lot of successfully concluded projects have delivered promising results for energy efficiency ‎(‎Railenergy‎, ‎CleanER-D, ‎Energy consumption‎, ‎Parked Trains‎, ‎etc‎) and other important ones are ongoing (MERLIN, Shift2Rail). ‎What is in many cases lacking is practical implementation and optimisation in the field. ‎This project will develop best practice for energy efficiency through a series of workshops. These workshops will bring together experts to share experience, find solutions and overcome obstacles. The project continues a series of very successful and well attended energy workshops over the past few years.

ERTMS Platform services

UIC is active within the ERTMS/ETCS development and evolution. At the European level other organisations such as the ERTMS Users Group, UNIFE, UNISIG, ERA, CER and EIM are cooperating. UIC assures the coordination and chairmanship of the CCS&Tlc Support Group set up under the CER.
The main reasons of the project are:
- To contribute in collaboration with the CER-CCS S.G. to coordinate technical debates and the priority items established by ERA-ERTMS Control Group;
- To periodically inform the UIC railways about the status of the activities carried out by CER-CCS SG, ERA-ERTMS Control Group and ERA-CCS Working Party
- To identify the actions and items which may be important and are not in the vision of these groups and take initiatives to launch new UIC projects or new collaboration of UIC in existing projects of other stakeholders.
Correlated benefits of such exchange of information are the avoidance of duplication, the coherence and efficiency of the common work in ERTMS development, also outside Europe where ERA doesn t have jurisdiction.

EUR palette

To insure an permanent increasing of use and production of EUR pallets, there is a requirement to work together firstly with global standardisation companies, (such as GS-1) and, secondly, with research institutes, and recognised logistics universities. Currently the favourite is the GS-1 project, of the MTV (reusable transport packaging) Competence Center and the RTI Interest Group RFID (worldwide leader in the standardisation of standard load carriers with regard to RFID (radio frequency identification). In Germany the carriers of GS-1 are e.g. trade, industry, the VDI (Engineers’ Union) and other promoting companies.
The pallets are using for the more effectiv and security loading the wagon of one part of goods in the railway transport.

European Standard Freight Wagon Axle for 25t (ESFA 25)

[Version 17.11.2014] Recent years have seen various measures being introduced to improve wheelset maintenance in response to incidents in service.
Developing a new harmonised wagon axle/harmonised interface for wagon axles would serve towards harmonisation and ensuring effective maintenance at a low cost. These new axles are distinguished by a larger diameter.
In accordance with the decisions taken by the Rail System Forum Steering Committee on 28.11.2012 under agenda item 2.1, the task of drafting a project proposal for developing a 25 t wagon axle was taken on. The data already collected by the Joint Sector Group on sector requirements for an axle of this type is being taken into account.
The challenge in this work is to blend the expertise of UIC with the needs and interests of European operating companies.

Exchange of Railway Vehicules phase 2

315 K€ financed by Freight Forum
Support the evolution of the exchange of wagons, related to the General Contract of Use (GCU).
Provide an efficient framework for the exchange of wagon between the members.
Draft the guidlines of loading rules for wagons.

Formalization of Interfaces Functional Specifications

The harmonised use of the interlocking systems into the ETCS applications needs the complete, precise and safety-testable functional specification of the interfaces of all applicable interlocking systems to the Radio Block Centre. Specification is currently only available for rare electronic interlocking, only for the "static" functions and not for the dynamic interlocking functional sequences. Important progress and significant added value in terms of: 1) Extension of the applicability area of the ETCS with real and non electronic interlocking with important benefits for the railways and for the roll-out of ETCS, 2) The stability, non-interpretation and formal safety approval of complete spécifications with important added value on cost reduction and re-use of IXL ressources, 3) The safety validation of static and sequential (dynamic) IXL requirements based on instantiated models and exhaustive computer testing using the functional postulates and safety invariants, with the crucial benefit of avoidance of any incipient design failures contrary to safety and shortage of the time and money for application validation

Framework for an intenational climate change adaptation for the rail sector

Climate change adaptation has been identified as a priority by the United Nations COP22 conference. The project will develop appropriate climate change adaptation strategies rail infrastructure managers and operators. The whole rail sector is facing common problems related to the increase in occurrence of extreme weather events (high and low temperatures, flooding, high wind speeds, etc). For example, it has been estimated that adverse weather conditions are currently responsible for 20% of all unplanned delays (5 million delay minutes in the UK alone). This problem is expected to get significantly worse in the coming years as a direct result of climate change, even if the target of limiting the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees is achieved. Railways will have to cope with a broader range of weather conditions, and they will have to be able to recover quicker and in a cost effective way. Without fast and effective action, adaptation costs will be much higher in the future. As a part of the United Nations climate negotiations all of the world governments are expected to develop adaptation strategies, this project will support UIC members in discussions with their governments to help secure appropriate consideration of rail sector interests.

Future Railways Mobile Communications Systems Solutions

GSM-R is a succes story. Railways have selected it on early 90 out of existing technologies, as basis of the new European Railways Digital Radio System. As GSM-R is based on public GSM standard, the technology evolution has a direct impact on its evolution. Broadband introduction in public networks is expected to impact the GSM life cycle, with consequences on GSM-R End of Life, expected at around 2025. Taking into account a period of at least 10 years to define all the technical details of a successor
(this was the time for GSM-R itself), the investigation on the system to be world wide adopted as GSM-R inheritor is therefore an urgent need.
The project is in line with the UIC strategy of building up and strenghtening harmonized Railway radio communications sytems performances in Europe, keep the pace with the technology advance, while preserving interoperability and protect the investments.

GALILEO Panel of Experts

The satellite navigation technology for positionig of trains and speeed determination is the new promising technology with large applicability in the railway domai.
The applications survey and support of the actions aiming at more efficiency of new technology in railway is the main scope of this activity.
The benefits are the UIC support for applications and maintenance of the technical survey and input of railways requirements in the novel domain.

Global Rail Freight Conference

The UIC Global Rail Freight Conference (GRFC) is a unique event in the calendar of logistics decision makers. The conference, which takes place every other year offers the opportunity to address key issues which impact the competitveness of rail freight.. Under the Patronage of the Dutch Minsitry of Transport, the 2016 edition (22-24 June) will welcome high level speakers from a variety of horizons and industries in order to foster interactive exchanges on the topic:” Smart Rail Logistics: global solutions for consumer and society”. A special focus will be put on transcontinental corridors but also on innovation and its impact on the rail freight industry business models and its work force.
The 2016 edition of the Global Rail Freight Conference will take place from 22-24 June 2016 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
This special edition will be organized in partnership with DG Move and The Dutch Ministry of Transport and will offer a natural continuation to the debates initiated on 20 June with the TEN-T days and the European Railf Freight Corridor event.

GSM-R

The project s objective is to monitor new and ongoing GSM-R implementations, gathering information from systems in operation about inconsistencies and upcoming requests for improvement and new features (so calle "Implementation Reports"). The project aims also to mantain the basic techncal specifications of the GSM-R system, in line with the UIC strategy of technical support for building up and strengthening the interoperability in Europe.
The most important added value is to mantain an overall and global control on the development of GSM-R, in order to guarantee the interoperability (notably for Europe)

GSM-R Network Management

The project is in line with the UIC strategy of technical support for building up and strengthening the performance of radio communication in Europe, while preserving the Interoperability of the system.
GSM-R is in operation on the majority of lines in Europe and is largely proven as being the radio digital solution in Europe. GSM-R European network requires constant work for harmonising issues on roaming conditions, operations, interconnections and international routing, frequency management, including more and more critical work on interferences coming from public operators.
For all the above activities UIC plays the role of technical autority; the UIC technical support for the European Commission, the European Raulway Agency, the Rails Sector association and ECC/CEPT is recognized as a necessity.

Harmonization of track quality description and assessment

PrEN 14363:2012 allows to perform complemented simulations for the acceptance of railway vehicles. Track geometry is an important input parameter and the requirements regarding track geometry data depend on the envisaged speed.
Track recording cars are used for maintenance purposes only. No track geometry measurement system in Europe is currently able to meet the demanding requirements for simulations. Therefore, costly, time-consuming and capacity-consuming track geometry recordings have to be carried out specifically for simulation purposes, to fulfill these particular needs.
Opportunities for an extension of the scope and an harmonisation of track recordings are investigated, in order to allow high output recording cars to collect the requested geometry data both for maintenance and for simulation purposes. Considering the more and more frequent use of simulation, especially for virtual homologation (still partial) of vehicles, high benefits in term of time, cost and capacity savings are expected, as well as a higher level of reliability of the simulation works.

IPAAB AUDIT

This project is establishes the process to audit the distribution systems and application of tariffs and accounts in international passenger traffic, including payment and clearing process
Main issues are :
> sample audits of the areas specified.
> prevention of abuses and errors
> better control over ticket stocks
> verification of the application of the recommendations and instructions

Lasting Infrastructure Benchmarking

The LICB database which gathers information on lasting infrastructure costs (maintenance and renewal) in an integrated life cycle for benchmarking purposes.
15 europeean countries and 4 CEE.
More than 15 years data colection.

MERITS PRIFIS

The key goal in this work is to maintain common databases containing prices, tariffs and timetables for the railway members concerning the schedules and prices information (Europe, Russia, Turkey...). These databases are weekly updated.
So each Railway Undertaking, member of Merits-Prifis, can provide to the customers information about all trains of the community, and sell tickets of other companies with its agreement.
Each member can also become an IT provider (on Internet, on APPs...).

New UIC Standard "Overhead Conductor Rail Requirements"

[version 17.11.2014] The Overhead Conductor Rails (OCR) are in use only since around 30 years and both transport companies and manufactures gathered a lot of experiences in this field.
The OCR will be more and more applied as solutions instead of OCL under restricted space conditions and complex requirements. These are typically tunnels, bridges and service facilities. At the moment there is no standard which covers the special needs of OCR, as it is the case for ordinary catenary system.
The objective of this project is to create a UIC Standards which can fill this gap. The railway operators will thus be able to design and install routes with OCR based on this standard. The benefits will be:
1) the UIC Standards will be the reference standard for railway operators;
2) definition of an OCR set of parameter to guarantee safety, reliability and maintainability;
3) test sets and conditions to qualify OCR components;
4) aspects of interoperability and OCR can be involved.

Other Freight Activities

This budget serves to finance the running of the Freight Forum sections, with the exception of the Combined Transport Group, Raildata and the Wagon User Group which have their own specific budget.
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Panel of Experts Activity - Asset Management Group

To help railways to introduce Asset Management principles.
Help railways to applay ISO 55000.
To introduce guidline and evaluation tool on Asset Managemnt.
To help railways to optimise their costs and use at the mximum value for money their assets.
To help mebers to be efficent and transparent on managing their assets.

Panel Of Structural Experts

Exchange of information, benchmarking, harmonisation, standardisation, technical studies have been one of the most important roles of UIC expert groups, since the fundation of our association.
The Pannel of Structural Experts represent a unique technical platform for the experts from most of the European Infrastructure managers, but also from Asian countries, to meet and conduct common exchanges and research activities.
The PoSE is also responsible for the UIC leaflets in chapter 7 which are directly related to them (sub-sections 70, 71, 77, 78).

Passenger Accessibility Solutions Support and Action Group for Europe

The PASSAGE project brings UIC members together to address their obligations arising from new Passenger Rights Regulations (EU Regulation 1371/2007 [PRR]). These cover the rights of People with Reduced Mobility (PRM), including Disabled People. Whilst the PASSAGE project has touched upon issues to do with age the predominant concern of PASSAGE has been to address the need to improve services for disabled passengers in the context of this legislation.
The PASSAGE objectives are
• To create and safeguard professional exchange among the railways related to concrete measures aimed at improving accessibility for PRM;
• To make transparent practical solutions how to response to a given problem in a most cost-effective manner and so to provide an impulse and incentive for those members who are still at the very beginning of creating accessibility for PRM;
• To address the interface between the requirements of legal stipulations and the practical management and delivery of rails services to older and disabled passengers;
• To learn from practice other transport industries and evaluate the extent to which their solutions may be appropriate for Railway Undertakings
• To regard PRM as a target group of commercial interest.
PASSAGE came into being because we recognised, as train operators, that we had a common interest and a common purpose in developing better practices and sharing these together. In many EU member states cross border traffic is very high e.g. Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany. In other member states considerable investment has been made in improving rail access even if the amount of cross border traffic is relatively low e.g., Great Britain, Sweden.

Problem to solve
• Safety related issues: passenger doors are the first cause of accident for passengers.
• Assure and assess reliable functionalities and uniformity of behavior. Define the minimum operation requirements profiles for Door, Passenger Alarm and Passenger Communication System.
• Supply to the UIC Members the technical basis upon which to develop the UIC – IEC cooperation and harmonisation of standards on these items agreed between IEC and UIC: the project is needed to define Railway Operating Companies requirements about these topics.
• Unification of the different interfaces of the train access door system and of the on-board alarm and communication systems.
• Improve and simplify technical and operation management of these train subsystems.
Benefits
• Accessibility to standardised and interchangeable components.
• Reduced number of spare parts and testing procedures.
• Simplified maintenance of door systems, even for non homogeneous fleets (troubleshooting, training, testing).
• Harmonisation/Unification of door operation. Definition of the common levels and categories of operation and safety evaluation.
• Harmonisation/Unification of operation and establishment of full specified levels of safety for Door Systems and for Alarm and Passenger Communication Systems.
• Standardisation of the interfaces of the Systems.
• Availability of multiple source suppliers.

PRM Assistance Booking Tool

Compliance with EU Regulation 1371/2007 regarding the booking of assistance services for Persons with Reduced Mobility (PRM) for an international train journey.
EU Regulation 1371/2007 stipulates that assistance to PRM has to be provided if requested and notified at least 48 hours prior to departure. For complex journeys across several networks, this creates a communication challenge, since at origin and departure, as well as every transfer point, corresponding information has to be communicated to railway staff in charge. The PRM Assistance Booking Tool is a web-based application that helps to structure and facilitate the booking of assistance services for passengers with reduced mobility (PRM) for international journeys throughout Europe. It is a reference application for the standards and XML messages defined in UIC Leaflet 918-6 (see TAP-MD Group).

RailTopoModel (ERIM)

Rail infrastructure data is as much an important source of knwoledge as it is a cost driver. Infrastructure data are used for a variety of purposes, linked with operations (technical compatibility with vehicles), territorial development (see INSPIRE Directive), rail operating companies purchases and asset management, regulatory needs (see RINF Decision, or SERA Directive 2012/34), etc. In the past, the different information needs led to setting up different ad hoc data set that were fit for purpose but mutually incompatible and often inconsistent.
The purpose of the ERIM activity, in 2014-2015, was to define a single infrastructure data model (called Rail Topo Model). Its key features are accurate topological representation (correct location and distance information, unequivocal possibility to run from A to B), and scalability (e.g. corridor / line / track / trackside component views, according to purpose). Obviously, the added value is the reduction of data repositories, and the ensured consistency of data.
In 2016, we will further extend the model with 1) signalling and interlocking concepts, 2) accessibility concepts (in the sense of accessibility to people with reduced mobility), opening the door to facilitated intermodal data exchange ; 3) integrating economic concepts into the model (costs, lifetime, wear & tear rules).

Railway Telecom Panel of Experts

The project is in line with the UIC strategy of building up and strengthening the telecom sector s general knowledge.
There is a strong need to guarantee for the telecommunication technology the preservation of domain knowledge while being open to creation and interfacing of new concepts. The rapid evolution in this domain necessitates a continuous survey and update to enable railways to use the Tlc system as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Requirement DataBase EUTREQ

EUTREQ is a process set up to manage performances, basic functionalities and requirements of the railway system in a highly structured framework and allowing their organisation into railway standards. The information contained into EUTREQ represents thus the standards related know-how of the railway sector. A simple but highly interfaced data base is the operative tool of EUTREQ. Basic quality and certification procedures to access, maintain and update the Data Bank are implemented. The requirements database supports the preparation of consistent requirements, enable tracing, interface management and increase of the efficiency of the related railway processes. EUTREQ provides available requirements including their sources for the selected functions. It is possible also to provide missing functional requirements from published specifications and to specify new ones, preferably by requesting changes or adding by additional elements. System or product requirements can also be introduced, thus making possible the exploitation of the system by different stakeholders.

RIC

Rules for the consist and braking of international freight trains

Problem to solve:
• Improvement and harmonisation of cross-border traffic for more profitable freight business.
• Valorization of the TRAINDY software for the calculations and the validation of the extended freight train configurations.
Benefits:
• Accessibility to standardised Freight train configurations for international traffic.
• Unique reference document availability usable for the authorisation procedure.
• Reduction of time in the border crossing and simplification/unification of the necessary custom documentation
• Extension of the use of the TRAINDY software to the optimisation of train composition

SAFETY PLATEFORM

To take account of the issues relevant to Safety Management on the rail system to support the improvement and to manage efficiently the core risks.
To execute studies and activities based on the core principles of Policy, People, Process and Performance .

SECURITY PLATFORM

Railway security deals with the protection of persons, information, goods and infrastructure from all forms of threat, from malicious acts to terrorist attacks, for the purpose of improving service quality and developing transport. Railway security is an increasingly important issue in Europe,it s a common responsibility to meet the demands of customers and staff. In addition to the security of traffic, security now forms an integral part of customers’ demands (passenger and freight) and the working environment of staff. It s a shared responsibility with national authorities and alongside law enforcement authorities (police forces, border guards, etc.), railway companies together with their security service providers play a specific and recognised role.
In this context the security platform will benefit to UIC members by
• Raising awareness in the railway sector of this increasingly important issue;
• Developing networks of experts;
• Sharing experience among UIC members to identify the best solutions and adapt them to each specific situation;
• Ensuring coherence between different security policies to help the development of international traffic;
• Elaborating recommendations regarding technologies, human factors and organisation;
• Developing responses from across the rail sector vis-à-vis and in partnership with European and other international institutions;
• Running research projects of interest to UIC security experts or representing rail sector in research projects;

Signalling Panel of Experts

The Panel of Signalling Experts (PSE) promotes the strategic orientation of the UIC towards federation of domain knowledge on a global vision, to support convergence of the core domain s requirements and identify the optimum application of winning technology. In particular the PSE aims to maintain and update the knowledge on rail signalling domain and to find appropriate responses to the technological evolutions which affects the domain.
This is actually a permanent activity, providing an open platform for sharing knowledge, discussing new problems and finding common solutions and opportunities among members in the (global) signalling domain

Station Managers Global Group

The Station Managers Global Group (SMGG) aims to exchange best practices between actors and experts all around the world, to organise events, to launch studies, to standardize interoperability subjects… It is an incubator for new projects related to stations.
The stations managers have organised regular meetings in order to exchange best practices.
The subjects discussed are:
- Presentation and benchmarking of each organisation of station management
- Drafting a UIC standard concerning the Classification of stations (leaflet 180)
- Organisation of the global Nextstation (Moscow – October 2013)
- Submission of a proposal in the Framework of European call for tender Horizon 2020 on Innovative stations (INSPIRE)
The Members of the Group have stated that there is not enough knowledge about best practices in Station in other Régions of the world and have proposed that the group should facilitate a global Station Observatory.

Technical advice and assessment of European Railway noise policy and research

The European Commission is under significant political pressure to take action against railway noise. As a result of this DG MOV and DG ENV are currently developing both regulation/policy proposals to reduce noise emissions from the rail sector. The legislative proposals are likely to have a significant impact on the sector, particularly for freight.
The Commission is also developing the scope of major research programs (eg Shift2Rail). The research programs present an important opportunity for technical development of low noise rail transport.
It is important that UIC, as the sectors technical body, provides input to these developments. This is required minimise negative impacts (eg costs), ensure that the proposals are proportionate, promote effective noise management & support growth of the freight sector.

Tourism potential of railway services

The purpose of TOPRAIL is to explore the potential of railway services for tourism development and to seek for partnerships
between railways, other transport undertakings (e.g. ferry operators) and local tourism industry as well as public authorities, if
applicable. The strategy consists in making known best practice and to assess their portability to other cases.
The tourism industry is linked to railway by all means so UIC has to work on this aspect of the railway. A train
– can be a tourism product as such (“cruise train”) without a primary focus on transport (e.g. Orient Express, The Ghan);
– is regarded as a convenient means of direct transportation to a holiday destination (e.g. night and car-sleeper trains);
– is a regular transport product, but can offer a special travel experience (e.g. Qinghai Tibet train, American trans-continental);
– provides local mobility at a tourist destination connected to mainline rail (e.g. Usedom Island Railway).
All these types of trains may promote a positive image both for rail transport and the region.
Benefits: Initiation of business relations among UIC members related to specific products; business opportunities; raising awareness at third parties (tourism industry, decision-makers).

Exchange of information, benchmarking, harmonisation, standardisation, technical studies have been one of the most important roles of UIC expert groups, since the fundation of our association.
The Track Expert Group (TEG) represent a unique technical platform for the track experts from most of the European Infrastructure managers, but also from Asian countries, to meet and conduct common exchanges and research activities.
The TEG is also responsible for the UIC leaflets in chapter 7.

Train Bus Applications and Homologation

[Version 17.11.2014] In accordance with the UIC/IEC Cooperation Agreement signed on the 11th June 2014, this activity is part of the common UIC/IEC work programme.
In case this project is not done the UIC Leaflet 556 and all the related application Leaflets (see below) will no more reflect the new technologies described in the new edition of the IEC 61375 (acknowledged by the National Standard Bodies).
Results to be obtained with this project:
1. compliance with new ERA specifications
2. UIC portable interoperable hardware and software train application testing facilities available for the members
3. train operating processes will become more flexible because of increased and differentiated remote control possibilities
4. the work of the Operating Train Staff will be made easier
5. the safety of passenger traffic will increase
6. additional functionalities will be made available in passenger traffic as, for example:
- Automatic brake testing
- Comprehensive information and service for the passengers
- General use of diagnostic techniques in the vehicles & energy saving

UIC Control App

The UIC Control barcode reader App is designed to control any UIC Ticket Barcode on Android mobile device (smartphone or tablets).
The benefits are:
• The control App is a Proof of Concept for part of UIC URT specifications and for UIC TAG barcodes definitions.
• UIC headquarters could promote its standards and “know how” in conferences and seminars in a tangible style.
• UIC Ticketing groups could verify the theoretical propositions and to check barcodes created by RU’s.
• UIC Railway companies would be free to reuse the code in their own specific software for their own control devices.
The App should read as well the existing UIC 918-2v3 barcodes as the new, to be developed, variable size, variable content, structured data based AZTEC barcodes. There could be the possibility to read UIC 918-3 DST AZTEC barcodes and the UIC PDF 417, giving the possibility to read all 2D railway barcodes used in UIC context. The app should also integrate the UIC Railways Barcodes Public Keys XML file stored on the UIC PKMW application.

Upgrading and Updating the UIC Standard 413

The proposed project will be as follows over the two next years:
• Revision of the International Railway Standard 413 which concerns the signage and the information for the clients in the stations including new information technologiy intended for worldwide guidance. Some standards can be proposed, taking into account the current supports.
Revision sought is not just an update, (first edition 1960, last revision 2008), but is considering a new approach, involving not only signing at trains or stations, but including new information technologies to satisfy Customer needs, and new technical and scientific approaches intended for worldwide guidance. Specific objectives for the new standard are:
• To include new technology, recognising that printed elements are declining
• To preserve classic signage & wayfinding items
• To be open to discussion & participation from different sectors / regions
• To be flexible for accommodating diverse present rail networks status
• To include UIC default signage libraries or new technologies applications

When the URT project is completed in September this year it will have developed some specifications relating to modern forms of ticketing and fulfilment. There is still work to do to complete these specifications and this will be done in the TAG group, within the UIC Technical Group (TG).
These eventual specifications extend our existing UIC work to include airline-style dematerialised tickets (security in system) and to enhance the barcode specifications used by most railways. They also include messaging required, for example, to share information collected when tickets are read.
Writing specifications in committee is an essential starting point, but deployment and use is needed to make them valuable. Within the URT project, a proposed test and deployment project has been defined to transform the specifications from their current state to something that can be used by IIC members with confidence.
Specifications support commercial and operational business processes. As regards fulfilment, important business concepts include fraud control, after-sales activity, management information and disruption management. These concepts require service descriptions that set out the way that the parties involved in fulfilment and ticket control – ticket vendors, rail service operators, station managers – all work together. A pilot project is needed to develop these service descriptions and test them in real life conditions.
The subject itself is of comparatively low risk, other than the usual difficulties faced by specification development. It builds on existing commercial developments and as it does not require wholesale system replacement, it can lead to a major improvement in customer convenience in a manner that is cost-effective for railways to provide. It will reinforce the role of UIC as supplier of technical specifications to the rail sector.

Works of Programme Managers and SETs

Benefits for the members are on:
• the production of International Railway Standards (IRS) and sector standards (UIC leaflets)
• the development of the inputs for the mandatory regulations
• the development and exchange of inputs for regional standards
• the cooperation with the other standardisation organisations for the preparation of coordinated standard provision
• the development of research activities
Rail Operator Community can now influence these key areas from a position of fully informed and coordinated strength.
A greater level of structured technical contribution is thus provided.
The technical resources are oriented to set out and defend the operators technical positions even toward the correspondent technical structures set up by manufacturers.